Life Support
by ImaginIsa
Summary: Sometimes it is really a no-win scenario. How will the crew of the Enterprise survive when their life-line is cut? Sometimes it takes a bit of future magic to save the day. Read, enjoy and review!


Author's Note: I do not own Star Trek. Spoilers for Star Trek: Into Darkness.

I realized that I'm writing my Star Trek fan fictions more or less chronologically so some character stuff will make more sense if you read them in order (Exam Day, Birthday, The Weakest Link, and Dreams, in that order.) Also, if you want back story on Admiral Mayweather (from The Weakest Link and Exam Day) google Travis Mayweather from Star Trek: Enterprise. I don't actually know if he becomes an Admiral or not but it seems very likely! Enjoy and please review!

Also, for all those who recently started getting notifications about my stories - thank you so much! I'm busy with college now but I would still love to write if you give me ideas! Review with suggestions for who you want to be featured in the next story and what crazy mess the Enterprise (or maybe other ships...) need to overcome next! Hope you like this!

**Life Support**

The most frustrating part was that they hadn't seen it coming. It was made of a strange material that neither the Federation nor the Vulcans, neither the Romulian nor the Klingon Empires had ever cataloged. They probably had passed right past it without ever seeing it. Or, if they saw it, they had not realized its importance. It was a strange metal that simply did not exist to the sophisticated sensors of the Enterprise. It was simply invisible.

But the material was there, and it was solid, and it was very dangerous...

The Bridge

Sulu cursed himself for flying right into them, flying right into them at warp! But he hadn't known. He'd checked the sensors so carefully...but these rocks, these monstrous boulders didn't exist...until they ran you through. He'd been at his station, and according to all sensors the black expanse of Space and brilliant stars before them was clear of all debris. Then there had been that noise, that terrible grinding noise. The ship had jolted to a stop, seemed to teeter, as if on the edge of a cliff, and then ripped free to spin around and around. The Enterprise was spinning out of control, and it was still at warp.  
Everyone had cried out. Alarms started blaring. Sulu had jolted forward and smacked his head on his station with the brief stop and then flown forward again when the ship started once more. His vision was blurred and his head hurt more than he thought possible. But he was the pilot, this was his responsibility. He couldn't see well but he knew these controls like the back of his hand. Sulu dropped them out of warp and then collapsed on his chair. He put a shaky hand to his head...It came back sticky with blood. Overwhelmed by the pain, Sulu's vision went dark.

Chekov, a few minutes before so ecstatic to be back at his post after his ordeal with the Klingons, had also been thrown forward. But he had flung his arms in front of his face with instincts he had discovered while being held captive. When the ship started again, he threw himself to the floor and held onto his chair for dear life until Sulu dropped them from warp. He saw Sulu collapse on the console.  
"Sulu? Sulu!"  
Chekov called to his friend. He struggled to his feet and ran to check Sulu's pulse. It was there, slow but steady. But so much blood...

Kirk had been walking, examining his bridge and his crew - his family - with a satisfied smile. Suddenly, he was thrown into the back of his Captain's chair. His arm hurt from the impact, but it wasn't bad and the alarms told him more people were in trouble.  
"Somebody tell me what the hell just happened! Chekov, did we hit something?"  
Kirk looked toward his Navigator and froze. Chekov was standing over Sulu's prone body, staring at a hand that was wet with Sulu's blood. But at Kirk's voice, Chekov snapped out of it and ran back to his own station, the fingers of his clean hand flying over the keys.  
"According to the ship's sensors, there is nothing there...but the ship recorded a definite impact with a large object."  
"We hit empty space? How is that possible?!"  
"I don't know, sir. But..." Chekov read something and gulped before rambling off quickly, the tremor in his voice saying that he was worried perhaps scared, "Sir! Whatever it was left holes in the side of the ship! Deck 8, 9, and 10 have hull breaches and so does engineering..."  
Kirk was almost through calling for Scotty on the ship's intercom when he registered the rest of Chekov's words: "And the emergency shields are not engaging!"

Deck 9

Uhura and Spock had decided to walk slowly back from lunch. Well, Uhura had decided that they could be a few minutes late to the bridge. Nothing was happening after all, they weren't scheduled to be in the star system they wanted to explore for another three hours. Spock liked being punctual, but he wanted to be close to Uhura. Close and alone. Chekov's kidnapping had been hard on her for a reason he could not fathom and he wanted to be with her, to comfort her. And he was discovering more about his own emotions every day...he wanted to share his realizations with her. He wanted to talk. She wanted to talk. They were set to be very late to the bridge after all.  
Then the ship and jolted and, right before their eyes, almost too fast to comprehend, a monstrous silver boulder ripped through the hall forming a long gash in the side of the ship.  
Then it was chaos.

Uhura screamed even as air was ripped from her lungs and the rock fell away to reveal Space, the final frontier so ready for exploring was now dark and dangerous. The atmosphere was sucked out of the room and Uhura went flying through the hall, toward the breech that led to death. Her hands scrabbled for any purchase on the metal floors and she thought she was lost for a fraction of a second. Then Spock's hand was clutching her lower arm and she dug her nails with so much force into his wrist that she drew blood. He was holding on desperately to a computer console with one hand, and onto her with the other. But air continued to scream out of the room and Uhura needed to breathe, desperately wanted air in her lungs.

Spock didn't want to die. But more than anything else in the world he didn't want to lose Nyota Uhura.  
Think, think logically.  
He had a few seconds of air in his lung, and for some unknown reason the emergency shields were not engaging. Neither were the emergency bulkheads. Which meant that the stone had ripped through more than one deck. Spock knew he could crawl to a Jeffries tube and pull himself to a place with air if he had use of both hands. But one hand was holding onto Uhura and the other was becoming weak from lack of oxygen.  
Think. Think. Think...  
But darkness was beginning to gather at the edge of his vision.  
I don't want to die.  
He could choose to feel nothing. Or he could choose...  
Spock looked at Uhura, she looked at him.  
"I love you," he mouthed, the last of the air in his lungs getting squeezed out in the process. Tears streamed from Uhura's eyes and Spock felt his hand slowly slipping off the computer console that was their life-line.  
Suddenly, the door to the dining hall slid open. Ensign Mayweather flew out the door, one end of some rope tied securely around her waist and the other end held by every person in the dining hall. With difficulty she slammed into Lieutenant Uhura and held on securely. Spock let go of the console, his vision all but black, and was dimly aware of the crew pulling the three of them into the dining hall with the rope. The doors were manually forced shut, and then he was gasping for air as the atmosphere was restored.  
Spock managed to rise to his elbows. Uhura was still wheezing on the floor, but color was back in her cheeks and she was alive. Wondrously alive.  
Spock looked at April Mayweather, currently on her knees gasping.  
"Thank...you...Ensign," Spock said between deep breaths.  
She smiled, "Anytime, Commander."  
"That was bloody brilliant," a crewman told Mayweather. April smiled but the smile slipped as the computer announced something over the ship-wide broadcast. Spock rose to his feet as he heard.  
"Warning. Engineering breach. Warp core, unstable. Life support, failing. Warp core, unstable. Life support, failing."

Engineering

Scotty had been content. He'd been content with the state of the engines, content with the work done by the crew under his command, and especially content with the slice of cherry pie he'd had at lunch. He'd been walking around engineering, just a routine inspection of the warp core, when the ship jolted. Simultaneously, Scotty heard a terrible sound almost like - but no, it couldn't be - layers of metal being torn open. Alarms began to blare and Scotty cried out as he was pulled back with the strength of air being pulled into a vacuum. Scotty grabbed onto a railing and held on for dear life for the few crucial seconds it took for the emergency bulkheads and shields to engage.

Then it was chaos.

Alarms everywhere were screaming and the crew was shouting to each other desperately. But the only thing Scotty registered was the blinking lights on the computer console before him: WARP CORE UNSTABLE.  
Scotty was then running, running as fast as he could to the warp core. Leaping over crewmen and debris alike.  
"Get away! Get out of here!"  
He shouted to the men and women gathered around the core and they scattered. He noticed the readings and stopped breathing for a moment.  
The core would be fine. It was the radioactive shielding that was malfunctioning. He bloody couldn't do anything, and the radiation would affect key warp-core systems and cause a core breach. Or he could drain the radiation...  
"Move!" Scotty shouted, struggling to be heard over the alarms. "Everybody out of engineering! Go! Go! Go!"  
The people around him began to run, pulling the injured with them. Scotty manually disengaged the alarms and for a brief second it was mercifully silent before he engaged the engineering evacuation alarm.  
He hesitated for a moment before doing the next bit.  
I should tell Kirk.  
But they had seconds, precious seconds, and Kirk would say to go ahead anyway. The Captain trusted his judgment, he should do what he thought was right.  
Scotty entered the code for the radiation doors around the core to open and drain the excess radiation into engineering. The doors to engineering, as well as all maintenance entrances and Jeffries tube doors, were reinforced to prevent radiation from entering the rest of the ship. The core wouldn't explode and everyone would be fine. Scotty entered the final code and then ran like the devil was after him for the doors.  
"Computer!" He shouted, "Close the doors to engineering! Close the doors to engineering!"  
"Warning, radiation imminent."  
"I know you bloody machine! Close the doors!" Scotty was almost outside, he was the last one left.  
"Automatic doors have been damaged. Manual override required," said the computer.  
Scotty swore and spun around. He basically fell down the stairs he had just struggled to climb and punched in his code. He pulled the manual lever into positions and slammed it into place.  
He felt very proud of himself before the realization that they were closing with him inside slammed into him.  
Scotty swore and raced up the steps, panting and sweating from the effort and the adrenaline. The doors were closing. The pitch of the alarms behind him told Scotty that radiation would flood engineering as soon as the doors were closed and locked into place. Scotty put on an extra burst of speed only to trip over something that was strewn all over the floor.  
Scotty fell hard.  
I'm dead, he thought.  
But Ensign Nick Paris and three more of the engineering officers grabbed onto his arms and pulled him clear.  
The doors to engineering closed centimeter away from his toes.  
"Thank God," Scotty breathed, "Thank you everyone. Whew...I don't ever, ever want to do that again."  
"Neither do we," Paris said fervently.

"Scotty? Scotty! Lieutenant Commander Scott, can you hear me?"  
Scotty grabbed his communicator and replied, "I'm here, Captain. And I fixed the core problem."  
"Great job, Scotty! Can you fix life support?"  
"What...?" Scotty listened to the computer announcement in the background for the first time. He went cold.  
"Warp core, stabilized. Warning. Life support, failing."  
"Scotty? Scotty, you there?"  
Scotty gulped and said, "Captain, life support systems are inside of engineering. I flooded the entire deck with radiation, we can't get in until the systems clean it."  
Kirk was silent, then said in a remarkably calm voice. "How long will that take?"  
"Thirteen hours sir."  
"Life support, failing."  
Failing...  
The next sound Scotty heard was the evacuation alarm.

Sickbay

The jolt had sent McCoy flying into one of the med-beds. After the spinning and fall out of warp, he found himself on the floor surrounded by data-pads and vials of medication. McCoy thanked the scientist that had demanded that all medication were put into shatter-proof containers and then he grabbed his portable med-kit, told two nurses to stay put and sent everyone else out to help the wounded.  
The rest was a blur of blood and wounded. McCoy didn't even pay attention to what the computer was saying until the young man he was treating gasped out.  
"Life support is failing."  
"Calm down," McCoy told him sternly. He wondered whether he should sedate him.  
The man grabbed McCoy's arm in a death grip. "Doc! Listen!"  
McCoy complied, just to make the patient calm down so he could  
treat his leg, but what he heard made his blood run cold.

"Life support, failing."

"The asteroid or whatever it was ripped through decks 8, 9, and 10," the crewman said desperately. "That means we're missing escape pods!"  
"It's okay," McCoy tried to soothe him. Yeah, he would need to sedate him. "The Captain will get us out of this, he always does."  
The evacuation alarm began to sound. The crewman looked at Doctor McCoy like a puppy that had just been kicked.  
"Even the Captain has his limits," the young man said. McCoy sedated him. He wondered whether that had been strictly professional and then began shouting for help. He had a lot of wounded to get onto very few medical shuttles.

Hangar Bay 1

"...and I didn't even notice the life support! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! You should fire me and..."  
"Scotty! Shut up, no one is getting fired! Just give me ideas!" Kirk gently set Sulu down on the floor with the other wounded that had yet to be loaded onto shuttles and glared at his chief engineer. Scotty's scheme had stopped a warp core explosion. Now he just needed someone to do something so that life support wouldn't...  
"Life support failing t-minus twenty seconds."  
"What?"  
For two precious seconds, the ship was silent except for the blare of alarms.

"Everybody off this ship!" Roared Kirk.

It was a tribute to their training that the crew did not stampede for the doors.  
20.  
McCoy was on a medical shuttle; the wounded were being laid on the floor, on the cabinets. "Hurry! Hurry!"  
18.  
Sulu almost got trampled. Chekov found himself on his knees trying to protect his friend.  
16.  
April was the pilot of escape pod thrusters were ready to he fired. "Fill this ship until we can't hold anymore!" She shouted over her shoulder.  
14.  
Uhura couldn't find Spock in the crowd. He was so tall you'd think she could spot him anywhere but she couldn't...she was directing traffic onto the crowded shuttles but she was searching, always searching.  
"Spock? Kirk?" The others...she couldn't see them.  
12.  
"The hangar bay doors in hangar bay 2 refuse to open, Captain!" Scotty shouted. He was panicked, panicked beyond belief.  
10.  
"Take off if you can! Go! Go!" Kirk called over the ship-wide intercom. Escape pods began to take off, but few. Too few...  
8.  
Where was Uhura? Spock had become separated from her. The shuttle near him needed a pilot...but he couldn't leave without her.  
6.  
"Chekov! Get on a shuttle!"  
"Someone help me with Sulu!"  
5.  
Kirk engaged the Captain's over-ride. The remaining shuttles took off. Uhura was pulled onto one just as she met Spock's eyes on the other side of the room.  
"Nooooo!"  
4.  
3.  
2.  
1.

There was no air. Suddenly, simply, no air left to breathe. So it didn't matter that the hangar bay doors opened, there was no air left for space to claim as its own. The shuttles and escape pods took off.

April was sobbing as she followed the other shuttles, piloting the small vessel automatically, as she did her duty and the young man she suddenly realized she loved did his.  
"I'm sorry, Pavel. I'm sorry..."

McCoy struggled to his feet. "Wait! Wait!" He shouted to the pilot, "The Captain! What about the Captain?"  
"The Captain goes down with his ship, sir," said the Andorian at the helm. Emotion was audible in his voice, "The Captain...wasn't enough room on the shuttles...we didn't have enough pods..."  
"Oh God," McCoy gasped. He felt tears hot on his cheeks, "Oh God."

Chekov was still holding onto Sulu with one hand, the other holding onto some handle placed there especially for occasions like this. The hangar bay doors slid shut automatically and the Enterprise tried to restore the atmosphere. But without life-support...there was no point. He thought of April - safely on a shuttle. Thank God for that...at least he could thank God for that...

Kirk stood, his chest heaving, and looked around. More than fifty men and women still on the Enterprise. Kirk dropped to his knees.  
I don't believe in no-win scenarios. I don't believe in no-win scenarios. I don't...oh God...  
"I'm sorry," he gasped.

Spock's world started to go black after Kirk collapsed. At least Uhura was safe. It was a small comfort with the crew falling around him. And Jim...

"Life support has failed," the computer said without feeling. "Life support has failed."

Scotty sobbed quietly as he felt himself fading into unconsciousness: "My fault, all my fault..."  
Then, with the sudden clarity that comes before death, he knew what the problem was. He's tripped over the problem himself! That boulder, that material that could not be sensed by sensors, if that was lodged inside the life support systems then the auxiliary life support would not have engaged because the sensors wouldn't have found a problem...a stone that wasn't really there wouldn't, couldn't, trip any alarms or back-up systems.  
How cruel, Scotty thought, I solve it when I have no time left to fix it.  
Scotty collapsed.

Spock let out an agonized yell that no one heard before letting the darkness take him.

But someone heard. A young man wearing a Starfleet uniform whose style had yet to be invented ran among the dead and dying.  
"C'mon," he hissed, jumping from body to body, placing his fingers gently on their temples like a Vulcan mind-meld and then running to the next person in frustration. "One of you must have an idea! I can't just reverse it without a clue about what happened! The timeline is already fragile enough and..." The mysterious man stopped talking as he got to Scotty and he suddenly knew what Scotty knew.  
"That's better," the stranger breathed.  
He looked up and snapped his fingers.

A Few Minutes** EARLIER**

The boulder hit the Enterprise, but only grazed decks 8 and 9. It never hit engineering.  
Sulu hit himself on the console, but it was only a trickle of blood and he was on his feet as soon as he dropped them out of warp.  
"What happened?" demanded Kirk.  
"We hit something, sir."  
"What did we hit? Chekov?"  
Chekov frowned as he looked at the sensors. "There's nothing there, Captain..."  
Scotty called, demanding why they'd dropped out of warp.

It took Spock about three seconds to logically deduce that they'd hit something that was invisible to the sensors, a new material.

McCoy grumbled about how it could have been much worse, about how they could have all died.

Disaster had never occurred.

But that night, every person had nightmares.

"Life support, failing."

Just a dream.

No one noticed the additional member of the crew - although Nick Paris sure as hell noticed his missing uniform.  
The mysterious young man walked into the dining hall and sat down with Nick Paris and April Mayweather.  
"Hi Jon," April said with a smile.  
"Hi...April..."  
"Did you forget my name?" April asked quizzically.  
Nick laughed. "You know Jon Que," he said, clapping the young man on the back. "He's slow to answer but he gets it right!"  
April and Jon both laughed as they were joined by more junior officers.  
"So, Que," one asked, sitting down with a full tray, "Did you have that odd dream last night too?"  
Que shrugged, "Maybe."

Later, alone at his station in stellar cartography, "Jon" carefully composed and saved a message that might never be read onto the ship's computers. A message that wouldn't decrypt until many years in the future. It was a back-up plan, just in case. It was signed "Q, Jr."

"Let's see if I can sort this timeline out," the young Q muttered. Then, he smiled.

Author's Note: Da da da, dum! Enter Q, Jr.! Google Q Junior (or Q's Son) Star Trek: Voyager if you have no idea who this is. Q is one of the most interesting characters in the Star Trek universe and I seriously hope that this reboot universe allows a place for him. I wasn't planning of having him in the story but he just snuck into it.  
Any ideas? Review please! Thanks for reading.


End file.
